Thursday, 13 January 2011

In case you didn´t know, I´m an avid tweeter, especially for Professional Development and networking with colleagues all over the world. And one of the best examples of collaboration towards PD in ELT is #ELTchat, a weekly one-hour conversation on Twitter on a topic voted by those who are interested in participating. #ELTchat is usually moderated by the amazing @Marisa_C (Marisa Constantinides), @rliberni (Berni Wall) and @esolcourses (Sue Lyon Jones) and each weekly chat is archived at http://eltchat.com/.

Yesterday, #ELTchat was about Teaching English through songs: activities, resources and benefits of using songs for teaching. So that you get an idea of the intensity of the conversation, these are the stats:

13 readings and resources,

68 ideas for using songs,

50 example songs with links,

11 music-related web 2.0 tools

All this information, which I have tried to digest for easier consumption, is too long to be posted in one blog post so I have divided it into 4 parts:

Part 1: Background readings and resources related to teaching English through songs

19 comments:

It was my first ELTchat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I started off trying to take in everything whizzing past me in TweetDeck, but gave up early on, especailly when I realised I was missing so much when trying to post myself. I knew there would be transcripts available, but was still wondering how I was going to make sense of the transcripts when you posted this. It will be very useful to me and I will share it with my colleagues.

Thanks Vicky for making the effort to summarise, categorise and crystallise our discussion last night. It is invaluable to spend time on this. It takes it to so many more people, it makes it more accessible and it turns it into a working resource for elt teachers all over the world. Fantastic work!

Congratulations on doing such a fabulous job of what we discussed yesterday!! The pace was fast and furious and ideas were flying around at an incredible rate, which was really very exciting. The buzz was almost tangible here in Abruzzo!!

I thoroughly enjoyed the chat (as indeed each #ELTchat I have ever attended)and it's great that you have summarised all our thoughts, links and resources in this excellent fashion.

Sorry I couldn't be part of the discussion.I would like to offer teachers access to my own Prezi called "Music and Song in ELT" which includes benefits, issues & uses of song, approach to learning, ways of performing, possible activities from beginning primary school to high school classes, potential background music, other online resources and articles.You can find the presentation at http://www.teachergreg.com/music--song.html.Best wishes for 2011.Greg.

I am having trouble posting to your blog. Here is the info I would like to add to your current discussion. I am enjoying your work and very happy to find you.

I wish I wasn't in the middle of a blogsite makeover. I am totally into using song for the acquisition of spoken English skills. Here is part of the site that is done: http://myeslfriends.com/wordpress/karaoke-esl/songs/and here is some fun intro videos to our Karaoke ESL thing:http://animoto.com/play/5sTrL72ho002IB4AYAgPzQand why I think song is the keyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_L4Vb1zxhQ

Thanks for the work! I'd ask teachers to check out all the teacher shared karaoke files (or make their own) on EFL Classroom 2.0. Thousands from teachers all over the world. Also, on my blog, I show how to make a doodle video. they are cool and students love making them. http://ddeubel.edublogs.org/2010/09/14/making-a-doodle-video-with-your-class/

Also, my teacher training presentation on using song. Click the pics to go to examples. http://eflclassroom.com/TESOL/usingsongs.swf

Dear Vicky:Great post with tons of resources. I love your idea to write it so many participants added more sites.BTW, I wasn't there ( I mean in Twitter), but I really like working with songs in the classroom. There is a good group in Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Songs-for-Teaching/118205941217

Thanks so much! I deeply cherish Educational Technology to allow our loved ones (And little ones) have more knowledge and less money and time. I'll keep up with this blog as much as I can on a daily basis.

Hi, Vicky! Thanks for these great links! I use Beatles songs in my classes. The one that I use is Yesterday which I use to introduce the past tense. I'm excited to learn more how other teachers are using songs in their class. My students love to sing.